Though subject to eventual attack and deprivation by the Parthians and Palmyrenes, it had nothing like the constant incursions faced in other areas on the Roman frontier, such as Germany and North Africa, or the entrenched cultural presence that defined the other more Hellenized eastern provinces.

It includes the comparatively fertile Moab plateau, which received 200mm of annual rainfall, at the southernmost tip of which lies Petra which, along with Bostra (or Busra), together constitute the political foci of the province.

In addition to Petra, major cities included Bosra, Jerash (Gerasa), Canatha, Adraa, Maximianopolis, Philippopolis and Amman (Philadelphia).

[2] Petra served as the base for Legio III Cyrenaica, and the governor of the province would spend time in both cities, issuing edicts from both.

There is no evidence of any pretext for the annexation: Rabbel II had an heir by the name of Obodas and though there was little fighting (attested to by the fact that Trajan did not adopt the appellation "Arabicus"), there does seem to have been enough of a defeat to humiliate the Nabataeans.

It was not until the project was finished that coins, featuring Trajan's bust on the obverse and a camel on the reverse, appeared commemorating the acquisition of Arabia.

Though Trajan declared Bostra to be the capital of the province, he also awarded Petra the status of metropolis, as a sign that he agreed about its importance with his successor, Hadrian, who considered it to be dignified and historic.

[citation needed] After the conquest, though, Greek was adopted popularly, as well as officially, practically supplanting Nabataean and Aramaic, as evidenced by inscriptions at Umm al Quttain.

[citation needed] The occurrence of Latin in the province was rare and limited to such cases as the tomb inscription of Lucius Aninius Sextius Florentinus, governor in 127, and, somewhat paradoxically, in personal names.

When Septimius Severus rose to power and stripped the Syrian city of Antioch of its status as Metropolis for its part in the rebellion and meted out punishment to any others who were unlucky enough to choose the wrong side, the Third Cyrenaica received the honorific "Severiana".

Syria was later split into two and Arabia was expanded to include the Lajat and Jebel Drūz, rough terrain south of Damascus, and also the birthplace of M. Julius Phillipus, better known as Philip the Arab.

Arabia became such a symbol of loyalty to Severus and the empire that during his war against Clodius Albinus, in Gaul, Syrian opponents propagated a rumour that the Third Cyrenaica had defected.

That it would matter to an issue in Gallia that a single legion in a backwater province on the other side of the empire would rebel indicates the political sway that Arabia had amassed.